I’m a single, female, disabled, native Whidbey islander. The benefits of Island life are numerous — most of them natural and have nothing to do with us human inhabitants. The others are deliberate and come with great effort. Even though I have no children, I vote for all the school levies. I want to live in an educated community. Even though I don’t use transit enough just yet, I vote for all the transit levies. I want community access and less congested highways. As a property owner, I’ve paid for school levies. As a person who shops on Whidbey, I contribute to paying transit levies.

Please, use the bus — even once! If you think a bus with four people on it isn’t worth it, you’d rather have five cars and drivers on the road than one bus and driver? You probably don’t vote for school levies either.

Jean M. Nienhuis

Oak Harbor